Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-04

Not content with imposing burdensome
contributions upon the agricultural industry
of the South, through the instrumentality of
tariff laws the enemies of Southern deyel-
opement and prosperity, now propose to so
amend the constitution as to allow an export
duty on cotton and ether Southern exportable
productions. Having failed in the scheme
for a universal confscation Of Southern
property, and its application to the public
debt, they now propose to saddle its payment
upon an impoverished portion of the people
by the indirect means Of revenue laws bear
ing unequally upon the people of the Union.
They would pile the Ossa of export duties
upon the Pelion of import duties, and
crush the energies and hopes of the South
ern people forever.
The result of the tariff laws, which have
existed from the formation of the Govern
merit to the present time, is fairly shown in
the vast accumulation of capital by manu-
facturers who have received its benefits.
1t has built up the most stupendous
monopolies, and aggregated capital in the
hands of the few, and full state
ment Of which would astOund the Amer
ican people. The princely incomes of
the manufacturing gentry of the North
rivals those of royalty itself, and the mag
ni6cence of d.ess and equipage dazzles as a
regal pageant. The poor operators expend
their labor and their lives in building up
these fortunes, but their children inherit
none of the fruits of their toll. The pro-
posed export duties will have the effect to
strengthen these unjust monopolies, by re-
ducing the price of the raw material at home,
and increasing it abroad, thus putting a
wider difference between the cost of the
manufactured article, and compelling the
home consumer to buy from those already
made rich by the tariff system.
The protective policy Of this country took
its rise in the infancy Of our manufacturers,
and was intended to aid and cherish them
in their struggles to maturity. 1t was not
intended to be perpetual, but was designed
by its movers and advocates to accomplish a
well-defned specific purpose and then pass
away forever. This interest has now reach
ed its manhood, and in its powerful strength,
is not only grasping the gratuitous aids by
which it has gained so much, but is reach
ing for Others by which it is TO be made
absolute monarch over the industry and
pockets of the entire American people
when a wave of its wand shall be the su-
preme financial and commercial law of the
land, disobedience to which Is commercial
death.
Ii is a strange cry, at this late day, to hear
the full-grown, purse-proud manufacturers
Of the United States, uttering the infants
wall, or the towards plea that if they are
not protected they must die. That day has
past, and that cry is hypocritical and mis-
chievous-it means monopoly, perpetuities,
and all that brood Of indirect and legal rob
berries, which the trainers of the Constitution
endeavored to provide against. II is a
covert effort to take advantage Of the unfor-
tunate circumstances in which the country
is placed, to change the ancient landmarks
ofpublic policy, and to erect moneyed
despotism over the heads of the people.