Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-02-17

SATURDAY. FEBRUARY IL, 1850.
Reading Matter on Each Page
An Interesting Document.

II
An Interesting Document.
The following able and valuable paper was
recently submitted to the United States Con.
gress by the AMERICAN FREE TRADE
LEAGUE, of which WILLIAM CULLEN Bay
ANT is President, and David Dudley Field
Lucius Robinson, Isaac H. Bailey, and Al
fred Bell, are Vice Presidents.
1t treats of the first great question to which
the attention Of the American people must
| bedirected when the work of restoration shall
have been completed. A question in which
the interests of the West and the South are
so deeply involved, that it must necessarily
bring them in harmonious action upon the
reconstruction of parties soon to occur:
Every man has the right TO work for himself
and TO enjoy, in full the fruits Of his own labor.
II is the right Of every man TO exert his powers
| of body and mind for his own good. 1t is neces-
sarily, therefore, right OF every man to take the
products of his own skill and labor and exchange
them freely for the products Of the skill and labor
Of any other man in the world. on such terms as
the two may agree are for their mutual good.
This free exchange of labor concerns only the
two. and cannot iniure Others. No one has the
with or hinder this FREQ exchange.
A Government has the right to take, by taxa
ton, 90 much only as is necessary for rs support.
1t should dc BY making the burden OF taxes
bear equally on all. III Government Affords
special favor or ENCOURAGEMENT to one form Of
labor, the other forms oflabor are neglected, and
thus positively discouraged. In this country, the
Government cannot give any special encourage
ment or favor to agriculture, because We can fur
nish the products of agriculture much more
cheaply than they can be brought hither from any
part of the world. Our country has more than
threefourths of its people engaged in agriculture
so that our Government cannot, II 1t would, by
any discriminating tax-laws, protect, as It is
called OF favor, the great majority of those who
live by their honest labor. In trying to afford
special protection or favor to any of the
ether forms of labor, it Is clear that the Gov
eminent is making laws for the good OF only n
small minority, and imposing positive and unequal
burdens upon the great majority. the farmers
The Southern farmer produces, say, bale Of
cotton; he can exchange this, in the markets Of
the world If the Government will let him, for at
least two tons of iron. But the Government steps
in and imposes heavy duty upon iron, not for
get more revenue by means OF n lower duty, but
the special benefit of the iron masters of this
country The result is: the Southern farmer
gets only ono ton Of iron for his bale of cotton.
The Northern farmer produces so many bushels
of wheat. Left free to exchange 1t with the
banket-makers OF the world, ne could get Tor
he now gets but one. So 1t Is with all the clothing
of his family.
The Door man requires as much OF warmth,
nouFishment, and shelter, as the rich man. The
rich man needs no more tea, no more coffee, no
more sugar. no more blankets, no more fuel, than
the poor man. In the present system Of duties.
therefore, the rich man pays but little more than
the poor man. 1t Is worse than this: Tor the
highest duties are put upon the coarsest fabrics,
which the rich do not, but which the poor must,
use. A woman cannot dress in the cheapest man
ner without paying tribute of several dollars,
out Of her earnings, to the manufacturers-a class
proverbial for wealth.. When a Government dis
tributes the burdens of its necessary maintenance
so unequaily, it does not tax; II robs.
The income Of the Government Il. of course,
lessened by high duties; for revenue Is got on the
goods which c0mein, and the aim Of protective
duties is to keep the goods out. The people
pay more. that the Treasury may receive less.
Not only is the farming class. and with 1t the great
body Of consumers, including the mechanics OF the
eountry made to suffer by a system of protective
duties but the nation in its collective capacity Is
impoverished. No doctrine can be more faila-
cious than that which maintains that the wealth
of a country can be increased by restraining its
inhabitants from obtaining for their labor the
most they can.
by combination of private interests the sugar
planter is won over BY a duty greater than the
cost of producing sugar elsewhere; the lron-mas-
ter the cotton and wooden manufacturers, receive
severaily their separate advantage in the way of
special favor to their occupations; and joining
forces they roll the unjust law through TO the \
wrong of all The rest Of the people. These classes
arc a small minority even OF the people Of their
own States: they are. all put together, q very
minute minority of our whole people. Every
farmer, every planter, every laborer. every car
penter mason, sewing women, every worker IN
this country, every consumer, IN TACT, except the
few who derive a profit from these petted occu-
pations, is robbed daily and hourly, and thelr
In n great number Of instances the effect Of
theseprotective duties is the grievous oppression
OF the pooT Inc dtsI mp1sec On 0sssn e1S
Atlantic coast through the dearness of fuel. The
duties on iron, which have made it enormously,
dear, bear heavily on all classes. All Kinds Of
the effect of protective duties. Paper, the great
vehicle of knowledge, has been exOrbitantly en-
HANGED in price by the same means without
bringing dollar into the treasury of the nation.
Formerly books were published here more cheaply
than in Great Britain. Now that country pro-
duees cheap books, W bile we produce dear ones; |
result of this tax on knowledge, from which only
the paper makers derive any advantage. In all |
these instances our country is unhappily imi- |
tating the policy which Great Britain pursued so
long in the instance of its Corn Laws, which after
a long struggle between the people and the aris- |
tocracy not long since abrogated, greatly TO
the benefit Of the people and even Of the land
owners themselves; for it is one Of the results Of
the protective system that il keeps back improve
ments and tempts the favored classes to rest con-
tented with imperfect, unskilliu, and costly meth
DDS of production.
One plea of the few who are favored by protect
duties is hat these duties protect the labor OF
his country against the Pauper labor OF Europe. 1
Il is false plea. For 1t is plain that IL Is the IN
crest of the very men who advance it, to get la
,or as cheap rs they can. Moreover; these very
men are themselves constantly importing work |
people from Europe. 1t is a false plea again, be-
,ause the laborer in this country needs no ones |
The American laborer can protect
himself against everything but the revenue laws
which make goods dear. lie is protected against
wages by the abundance Of free land,
eady for his occupation. We should never have |
leard Of the p&gper labor Of Europe, had tho
workers. there had free lands at hand in their OWL
espectve countries. such as we fortunately have.
The most powerful bond of union between tho
ilferent parts of this great country extendlnk
rom Ocean 10 Ocean, holding us together for
var, not only by the forms Of law, but By
mutual attachment and the feeling that we are
all respects one people, is impartial legislation;
egisation which shall not seek to enrich one por-
ion of the country ut the expense OF others.
Regarding it, therefore, as n most unworthy
nd groundless imputation upon our eountrymen
D insist that their ingenuity skill and diligence
annot, without the help Of protective duties |
eep pace with the ingenuity, skill and diligence
any other nation in the world, and holding,
borrower. that protective duties are unjust and
oppressive to the many, enervating to the indus |
" of the few for whom they are imposed, and in |
Dnsistent with the principles of civil liberty and
ne rights of man, the American Free Trade
eague trusts that Congress will see the pr0priety
nd expediencv Of renouncing entirely, in any |
TVS for the raising of revenue through a GUS
,ms tariff, the wasteful and mischieyous fallaoy