The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1866-01-24
FREE TRADE.

FREE TRADE.
The American Free Trade League, in Chi
esyo is organised and holding its regular
meetings, and we may expect, from the talans |
connected with the association, that the true
PRINCIPLES of revenue tariff will be set forth, |
in papers issued by the society, SO that the
people will be we'll informed on this important
subject
DR.. Charles q. Ray, principal editor Of the |
Chicago Tribune, has been elected president
of the association, and On taking the chair,
delivered the following address:
GENTLEMEN-In expressing my thanks for
the honor you have done me in calling me to
preside over the sittings of this league, hope
it is not amiss for me to say word In rela-
ton to the nature OF the work we seek to &C.
complish shall be very brief:
We are here to prove, and to make our
oountrymen of the northwest understand, that
which we have divine authority for asserting
"That figs do not grow on thistles"-or in
other words, that we cannot hope, and dare
not ask, for sound governmental policy so
far as it touches the industry and commerce
of the country, as long as that policy is bot
toned on fraud and lie. We are here to
no dispute, that the doctrine of protection is
q delusion and it's practice q robbery. We
are here to prove, that this government insti
tuted not for the greatest good of the great
est number, but the unqualified freedom of all
men-commercial and industrial freedom as
we'll as religious and political freedom-has
no right to tax one branch ofindustry for the
benefit of another branch and that when it
does so. no matter what the specious excuse
or the lying pretext, it trauscends its author
ity and should be rebuked. We are here to
enter our earnest protest against the class
legislation that is the bane of freedom else
where, aud that will sap its foundation here,
if it be permitted to usurp the authority for
which it is grasplng. We must build on these
as on q rock. We must again and again
raise our voices against the false assumptions
of right which lie at the basis of all the theo-
ries of protection; and while we admit thatrev-
enue may and ought to be raised by the impo-
slton of uniform duties on imports. we must
not be silent when this political and econo-
micsl necessity is made the excuse for a sys-
tenn of fraud and oppression that will in the
end cripple the commerce, embarrass the ag-
aicuture, and impovsrish the resources of the
country, that few hundreds or thousands of
the favored and protected may grow rich
We are. unquestionably. right. The princi-
pies upon which we act are co-existent with
nay are q part of, that bsnefcent and COM
prehensive democracy that our forefathers
professed. No others can, in the nature of
things, be enduring if this ia to remain a re-
ally free country. When we surrender the
right to trade where and with whom we will
under such Limitations as the country's neces-
sity for revenue may impose; when we per-
mit congress to say, even by indirection that
we shall look for a market for our western
nd Dn
that we shall not 90 to Europe to sell what
we have and buy what We need, we surrcn
der what is as naturally ours as the air that
we breathe or the sunlight that quickens and
purifes our blood. |, gentlemen, am not
ready for the sacrifice. My reading has
taught me too surely of the danger there is in
breaking down the barriers erected against
usurpation. In this country of ours the usur-
patton of capital, especially when its employ
ment is protected by class Legislation, is more
to be feared than any usurpation Of arms.
You, gentlemen, have great task before
you. Taking advantage of q supposed ma
tional necessity, the advocates of protection
have imposed upon this country tariff that
is without parallel in our national history
1t bears with ieadly weight upon the great
agricultural pursuits of the west and the
south, and it goes far toward repressing the
mining and railroad enterprises of the heart
of the continnt and the Pacific coast. It is
for you to shfw by your publications and your
speeches, hoE deeply injurious this tariff is
how it violaes the natural right of the citi-
zen by forcing him to trade where he can get
the least fir what he has to sell, wnere
pays hitheto fabulous prices for al that b 4,
is compelld to buy 1t is for you t. demol-
strate. as fou can, so that even the wilfully
blind NUT see, that the industry of the far
mer of tse west is being crisped up and de-
stroyed ~ the exactions that protection de
mauds that his corn Is rottlng in his field or
being armed as fuel, while he and his family
are paving triple prices for the scant clothing
that de,emy demands. 1t is tor you to show
as YOU saL that day-labor, m ensured by what
it will bu, is only inadequately rewarded,
and that hat reward as the demands of pro-
lection gew more and more exorbitant, will
heeome sss and less.
You ill be able Co show, also, that the ex-
euses othe protectionists for the imposltions
that thy have legalized are either unmean-
ing oraise-that when they say that thei-
objseds revenue TO meet the demands upon
the easury, they are pursuing q policy that
thrkens to prohibit all importations and
me revenue from custom duties impossible
W,n the uItimatuna of the protectionists is
rekzed and all foreign iron, hardware and
tile fabrics are shut out of our markets.
vence will these necessary custom duties
me? You will be able to show that the
lrdens which Cypress our internal COM
isrce by water and land-high freight tar.
ffs by rail aud high freight tariffs by lake
and river-are as much due to the robbery of
falsely called profession, as to the excessive |
currency initiation. You will be able to
show that the protected profits of the manu-
facturer of iron, cotton, and wool are 80 ex |
csssive that we are justified in the belief that
they will be sufficiently remunerative when |
only tariff for revenue is allowed. You |
will be able to show that the cry, often re
peated and now loudly Moderated, that with |
q reduction of the tariff the wages of Ameri-