New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-02-04

of the Chamber to secure the adoption OF the
Ministerial proposal.
------------------
GERRIT SMITH ON FREE TRADE
We have already referred to the dinner
which certain frce-tradc citizcns-manly con
SStent and implacable enemies of the Repub-
lican party-recently gave to William Cullen
Bryant. As, for the present, The ErcntRg Post
can do the Sham Democracy most service III It's
chosen equvOcal misunderstanding. as if from
a Republican standpoint every step taken by
Congress to prevent the surrender of the South
ern States, and thus Of the whole country, into
the power of the old slaveholding OiCarchy--
little was said of politics; but everything tended
toward the inevitable and not distant rcahsoip-
ton of The Post and its Free Trade disciples by
the white Mans party. Mr.. David Dudley
Field (brother of Justice stephen J. Field
presided Messrs. Samuel J. Tildcn and Alfred
Pell were among the maStcT-spiritS. Nj. Gcnit
Smith contributed the following letter:
PEIEEBORO. Jan. -.
Mcssrs PErt, CARROLL, md STERN, conD'atec Of ar
Lam irny thankful for this invitation public dan
to ig Bryau is rchi! deserved compliment IL j.
hOli0r 10 whom honor = cnphallcaily due.
Our Free Trade League simply denies 10 government
tie right OF aiming regulate change prices. The
people should. without any interference from govern
they ever lbs permanently from this interference
until government shall have been driven back from al
lis Intermediates and usupatons 10 its sole dny Of
prot citing persons and property The one legitimate
work of mt is 10 mold II, Slcd over The people.
beneath which they may fraud eNccptod, trade they
,"in Non .choois and ~bur.b@s rs ti,ev plcase The
CHEF reason why government does not perform well
its legitimate work d. that 10 takes upon itself
so much other WORK kent within its proper limits.
II is "A pricei.ss blessing: hut. allowed 10 uau-
sccud these limit, and 10 mix itself up with re-
latious and Interests foreign itself, and belonging
l'. 4
this means % n France. the owner OF me people i-
Stead of beng as 10 cNc should De- bat their scNau in
stepping beyond IFS province government always or
presses some. however much may help otAeI THIS Is
schools The Roman Catholic IS as clearly Oppressed by
the governmental school IN America rs 10y The govern
it is true mat srch government as am commencing
having no tariffs dcfray it, cost, would until the PEG
a. dir ~, r,aree mon Them Nevertheless II would Doe a
very cheap government The people, from their paying
no,.I il,en, in a d;recf instead OF an udircc, way
would see 20 IL that then government j. honest aud
frugal They would in tlat case, he a. yieEnu Is
tllcy now careless N regard 10 It's expenditure
Very respectfully yours, GIkEli -AlII.
Comments By The TrjbuHe.
Tile City Of New-lork. like nearly every
city. supports its government almost entirely
by direct taxation. II ought, therefore, on Mr.
Smiths theory. to be very cheaply and honestly
governed. Ia fact, however, il is most prodi-
eally and knavishly ruled; and the men who
are well known to have stolen themselves rich
in its municipal trusts are elected by its voters
to new and higher trusts by overwhelming ma
iolitcs. And the people are not visilaut but
exceedingly culpably careless with regard TO
the expenditures OF their rulers. The facts
are thus seen to be directly at war with Mr..
Smiths assumptions.
Ii. Nh Smith asserts that the one lceit-
mate work of government is to hold its
shield over the peope'-that all it does be-
yOnd protecting person and property" is
intelmeddling and usurpation.' His hOnorcd
father did not think so when he held up the
hand Of DE Witt Clinton throughout his ardu
Gus and long doubtful struggle for the compile
ton of om State Canals. 1t is impossible for
the blindest not to see that the construction OF
those Canals was not "the legitimate work Of
" government" according TO Mr. Smiths con
ception, but is to be classcd emphatically with
those intermeddlings and usuipations" which
he 50 pOintedly condemns. Yet had those Ca
mails awaited construction by private enterprise,
ours would not have been the Empire State,
nor this the Commercial Emporium, nor Mr..
Smiths vast Inheritance of real estate worth
half the money it has enabled INN to devote
to the good of his fellow men. II would UOba-
bly, have not been worth in all so much as he
has realized, and may realize, from that portion
of it which lies in and around the City Of 0s-
wegO. We respectfully submit that Nh Smiths
history, with that of our City and State, afford
the most striking .confutation of Mr.. Smiths
theory.
H. As a consistent and radical FIee-Tlader,
Nh Smith is of course hostile to common
schools - that is, schools supported by
mdiscriminate taxation. lie thinks men
should trade as they please and support
schools or not as they please. And he
seeks to arouse and stimulate Roman Catholic
hostility to our Free School system as pecu-
| harly oppressive to that portion of our people
whose children receive at least three dollars
worth of schooling where their parents pay
dollar of schooltax. 1t is Just as wrong, in
his view, to tax man for the support of COM
mon schools as to tax his imported cloth or
wares in order to encourage the production of
| rival Wares and Fabrics in our own country
and herein we think him clearly right.
1t is the object of Protective Duties to
diversity employments, increase industrial
capacity, and render labor more efficient, while
creating and difluslng stable Home Markets for
our Agricultural products. In other words We
seek by Protection a general and lasting good
at the cost Of local and temporary inconyen-
fence And Common Schools, in like manner.
seek to qualify the young for usefulness i'm life
and the worthy performance of the various
duties of citizenship at the cost of our whole
people, when perhaps fourth af them would