Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-02-01
FREE TRADE
Letter From Peter Cooper.

To the Editors Of iay country, and more espee-
ially to the Editors. Of he E0eaing Post
and Commercial AdVertiser Of this city:
1t is with more than ordinary regret
that am compelled to differ in opinion
with friends whom | respect, in relation
to their lavorite theory of an unqual-
flied 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 of these would secure every
facility Of convenient and rapid ex-
change throughout the length and
breadth of our country.
agree with my friends that free
trade is beautiful in theory, and would
be In practice between men and nations
where all things are equal, and where
all would actually weigh and measure
all the products of labor by one uni
form standard of measure. Such mea-
sure OF value should be as unyielding
in its nature as gold and silver.
1t should be measure that has an
inherent value in itself, the result of la
Dor actually expended in producing it
equal in amount to the labor that has
been expended on the article for which
gold and silver, or its equivalent, is to
be given in exchange. When the Gov
eminent has secured for our country
such measure of value, and has paid
the National debt, and when it has
caused gold and silver dollar to be
held in readiness to redeem every paper
dollar that is allowed to circulate as
money; when the time has arrived we
may with less danger venture to intro
duce system of free trade with foreign
nations. Every attempt that has been
made toward system Of free trade
with foreign nations, in connection with
our use OF an ever-expanding and con-
tracing system Of incorporated bank
paper money, must, as it has done, prove
delusion and a snare. 1t must In the
future, as it has done in the past,
bring in its train panic, pressure and
ruin to the untold thousands made
bankrupt by the change Of value in all
kinds Of property caused by the many
alterations of tariffs that have been
made. Such ruin must inevitably
follow policy that would leave our
own people unemployed while we are
buying foreign luxuries to be paid for
by exporting the raw materials of our
own country, and then bringing upon
our country all the waste of time. inter-
est and labor that must be lost between
the producer and the consumer. Such
trade will do for US what Mr.. Web
ster said paper money would do for a
nation: ut will fertilize the rich mans
field by the sweat Of the poor mans
brow"
Those who desire protection for Amer
lean labor ask the Government to adopt
the policy urgently recommended by
Gen. Jackson as the only true policy
that can secure for the agricultural in
terests OF the country steady and re-
liable home-market, and thus save the
farming interests OF the country from
an entire dependence on the uncertain
and fuctuating markets of foreign ma
tions, who will only buy of US when
their crops fail, and leave us with our
crops to rot in our barns when they
can do without them,
We should not forget that one of the
great causes that led to the American
Revolution was the determination on
the part of Great Britain to force its
manufactured articles on its colonies
to be paid for by sending raw materials
to England, and in this way to keer
them entirely dependent and poor, by
preventing the colonies from manufac.
turing for themselves. This is still
the policy of the British Government
by which it has drawn to its little is,
land 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 coun.
try TO run their plows in competition
with mighty machines in England
where single engine is doing the work
OF thousand men.
| To see the policy ofyielding to Brit.
ish policy we have only to look at the
efects produced on our country during
the war with Great Britain.
At that time, when our foreign trade
was cat Oh, labor was In demand and
money abundant; furnaces and mills
wers built, and all actively employed
wages were high and our national debi
small. Four years later came the Brit.
ish free-trsde system.
| at once all was chaDged-the milk
and furnaces were stopped, labor went
Begging and our poor houses wers filled.
The prios OF land declined, money became
scarce, and interest high. The rich who
held mortgages became richer, and this
poor and those who were in debt were
ruined.
| Ia view OF this widespread and gen
eral complaint, Gen. Jackson expressed
his deep concern for the welfare OF The
nation when he asked, "Whefe, where
has the American farmer q market for
his surplus produoep
He was snPelled to aBswer by saying,
"taat, except for cotton, tbs Amerisan
tarneF has neither for,ign or hons
| market"
| Gen. Jackson, like wise statesman.
advised bis csuotrynsn ITO draw, from
agriculture the superabr ndapt labor