The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1866-03-15
A Letter from Peter Cooper.

free trade with foreign countries
agree with all who contend for an un
qualified domestic free trade in every
article that is the product of American
soil or of American labor. For all these
| would secure every facility of convent
ent and rapid exchange throughout the
length and breadth OF our country. |
agree with nv friends that free trade Is
beautiful in theory, and wonld be IN
practice between men and nations where
all things are equal, and where all would
actually weigh and measure all the pro
duets of labor by one uniform standard
of measure or value. Such a measure
OF value should be as unyiclding IN its
nature as gold and silver
1t should be measure that has inner.
ent value in itself, the result of labor ac-
tually expended in producing it equal in
amount TO the labor that has beer eX-
pended on the article for which gold and
silver, or its equivalent, Is to be given
in exchange. When the government
has secured for our country such mea
sure of value, and has paid tie Nation
al debt, and when it has caused a gold
and silver dollar to be held in readiness
or redeem every paper dollar that Is al
lowed to circulate as money. when tina.
time has arrived we may with less danger
venture 10 introduce a system of free
trade with foreign nations. Every at
tempt that has been made towad q system
of free trade with foreign nations, in con
nection with our use of an ever expand
ding and contracting system of incorpo-
. rated bank paper money, must, as 1t has
. done, prove a delusion and a snare. 1t
must IN the future, as 1t has done in the
past, bring in its train panic, pressure
. 1 tlf fbonsan,fS 10
/ bankrupt by the change of value in all
kinds OF property caused hy the many
alterations of tariffs that have been
made Such n ruin must inevitably fol
/ low q policy that would leave our own
people unemployed while we are buying
. foreign luxuries to be paid for by export
/ ing the raw materials tor our country.
and then bringing upon our country all
/. the waste of time, interest and labor that
must be lost between the producer and
/ the consumer. Such trade will do for
rs what Mr.. Webster said paper money
would do for nation: 1T will fcrtiiiZe
the rich mans field by the sweat of the
/ poor man brow"
Those who desire protection for
7 American labor ask the government to
/ adopt the policy urgently recommended
7 by General Jackson as the only true pol
/ icy that can secure the agricultural in
terests Of the country from entire de
I peadence on the uncertain and fuctua
ting markets of foreign nations. who
will only buy of us when their crops fail,
and leave US with our crops to rot III our
! barns when they can do without them.
] We shold not forget that one of the great
causes that led to the American Reyoiu-
ton was the determination on the part
+ OF Great Britain to force its Manufacture
/ ed articles on its colonies, to he paid for
I by sending raw materials to England,
and in this way to keep them entirely
dependent and poor, by preventing the
! colonies from manufacturing for them
/ selves. This is still the policy of the
British Government. by which it has
! drawn to its little island the wealth of
+ every country that has allowed itself to
! become the subject of its policy and
power. 1t is trying still to persuade the
people of this country to run their plows
i in competition with the mighty machines
/ in England, where a single engine Is dO-
/ ing the work of q thousand men. 70 see
+ the folly of yielding to British policy
we have only to look at the effect as pro
duced on our country during the war
! with Great Britain. At that time. when
our foreign trade was cut off, labor was
in demand and money abundant; furna-
ces and mills were built, and ali actively
employed; wages were high and our
+ National debt small. Four years later
came the British frec-t trade system.
/ At once all was changed-rniIls and
! furnaces were stopped labor went beg
/ ging, and our poor houses were filed =
/ The price of land declined, money be-
/ came scarce, and interest high. The
! IL, h.lI hana ri tar
and the poor and those who were in
debt were ruined. In view of all this
wide spread and general complaint. Gen.
Jackson expressed his deep concern for
the welfare of the nation when he asked,
/ ''Where, where has the American farmer
q market for his surplus product :" He
was compelled to answer by saying,
. that, except for cotton, the American
farmer has neither a foreign nor home
market" Gen. Jackson, like wise
statesman, advised his countrymen Ito
draw from agriculture the superabund
ant labor and employ it in mechanism
and manufactures" He then said,
I'VE have been too long subject to the
policy of British merchants it is time
we became little more Americanized,
and instead of feeding the pauper labor
of Europe, we should feed our own and
give them employment" At this time
complaints continued to increase until
things grew SO bad that in 1828 our gov
eminent found it necessary to adopt
what / call true American system Of
free trade. 1t was a system of free trade
that extended TO all parts of our own
country on all articles that are the pro
duct of our own soil or labor. To en-
courage this system duties were levied
on imports, that soon gave new life and
energy to the trade and business of the
country. The public debt was soon paid
of, aud prosperity became universal =
By degrees, between 1884 and ls42, the
tariff was repealed the mills were again
stopped; furnaces closed, lands fallen
to half prices the sheriff at work: States