The Portland daily press., 1869-09-11

Vi our government, brought over from Lne
mills OF England and Scotland. in the early
r days of the Republic, a thrifty, skillful and
ingenious race of men, who planted the seeds
of our manufactures all along the water
courses of New England. And the same
policy has made the ocean highway for the
laboring classes OF Europe as they pass from
the narrow lanes of the old world, into the
broad avenues to social and civil elevation,
which citizenship under a free government
offers, We have reason to be grateful to our
fathers for the high virtues which they eXer-
cised, for their wisdom: and for their great ac-
complshments But they performed no high
er service, than when they declared it to be
the duty of government to protect its own
people in all their industries, and thus to
preserve those characteristics which consti-
tute, in every variety, the nations of the
earth. They were told, no doubt, that elf
government attempts to regulate these mat
tiers, lit is apt to fail entirely in its object; or
it oppresses and does mischief from igno-
tahce of individual concerns, from partiality
4 or vice." They were probably informed that
1.-THE doctrine of free trade is the doctrine of
Christianity and of an enlightened philan-
thropy." They were invited to the consider
alton of what must have been cheering
view to young and rising nation, that
"few have been the nations which have
arisen to power, wealth and civilization,
dioue, anu uHdlueu Dy OLnefS. Iau lueyf
lived in these days they would have been
told that "every man is endowed with cer-
tain inalienable rights, among which are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness land
therefore he should enjoy the privilege of.
dragging down the ambitious labor of free
country to the level Of serfdom and slavery.
lit was with them, however, a question of
how best to establish and oinvigorate an
American nationality as distinct from every
| othar n a ion altv. and fhau MI
a proud gaze, the great social aud civil sys-
TEN which they had founded, they resolved
to surround it with every necessary support,
to the send that.its grand design might be
| accomplished, And SO as France preserves
| her very life-blood by protecting her own ar
tisans and manufacturers against foreign
competition, and England protects her cheap
labor and great masses of capital against the
| skilled products of more favorable latitudes
1-so they resolved that the toiling citizen the
dearer capital and the better paid laborer of
4 America should at least try the great expert
| 1nent unmolested. q q A1 ~ : loi itli4i9t1 %
rs N ations may learn of each other it is true
4 but to become identical is with them, as
| with individuals, impossible. At the foun-
/ dation of national greatness lies the peculiar
1 genius of each people-that spirit trans
mitted to them by their ancestors, and mod
i ifed by the circumstances OF soil, climate,
education, religion, society, which have sur
rounded long lines of succeeding generations
From this point commences all national
! progress, all the developement of spiritual
and material existence. which is within the
reach of a nations bent and capacity. And
in this work it stands alone-and must so
stand, jealous for its rights, resolute in SELF
defense, determined for its honor and pros-
4 perity, confident in its own capacity to reach
the highest goal. In a struggle like this, it
! l., I,~,Is
i sizes, it may find rivals, it may be invaded
But it will gather strength from the strife,
and be enabled to gain position which will
entitle it to respect, and make it. worthy to
join hands with all the great empires, which
| are strong enough to reach the highest so-l
cial and civil elevation. How bravely has
our own country toled on thus far to this
I end! Born to an inheritance of great vir-
! tues, and the greatest opportunities, it has
exhausted all its; best thought. wearied its
most uDtiripg enterprise, vexed the very
/ earth itself, Invaded all oceans, and waded
through seas of blood, for the accomplish 4
ment of its high mission-the establishment.
i'll the world of American government, Amer
can industry, American law, American
progress, American power, American genius.
Possessed of theory of government, hith- I
erto unknown and untried, the custodian of
that civil system in which human rights are
| sacredly recognized, and in which human
equality is fundamental law, it is our busi-
ness as people to AmericaniZe all who seek
| protection beneath our flag, and share with
us our trials and our prosperity. This is our.
problem, in the solution of which it is not 4
1 for us to accommodate ourselves to others,
! but learning wisdom from their experience,
| to establish and insist upon our identity.
1 Let England work out her own problem, and
be English still. Let France solve hers.
| And let them learn of each other. But let
them not hope for uniformity or identity,
while they unite in peaceful struggle for
| that high and prosperous civilization, in
| which all the best thought and enterprise of
which man is capable will find scope rand
recognition. You might as well ask for
laKyst a9nlpent fsfhg as %e expect 1 t BIZ
tain ranges to be levelled, and the valleys to
be filed up, into one great plain from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, as to ask for a uni
form civilization among the nations OF the.
earth. Accepting then, man as he is, and
nations as they are, believing in the power
of all to work out their own salvation, arro-
| eating to ourselves nothing but the same
| great opportunity which we would have all
enjoy, we are bound by every consideration
of national honor, and wisdom, to see to it
that our own interests and industries are
protected, and developed, until our national
success shall compel all men TO believe in
our national design. ...t at. -.tal .
If there are those who would ignore this
inevitable and necessary national individual
ity, and who expect universal peace and har-
mony to follow unrestricted commerce, I'M
less it is attended by uniformity of capital,
labor, and civilization, would point them
/ to our own country fop their refutation. Be-
tween our own States free trade has always
existed. Bnt rivalries did not cease. Di-
verse interests did not find equal favor and
epioyment-so thought their advocates at
least. So long as the social organization of
one section based upon cheap, unintelgent,
subordinate labor demanded free trade, and
the social organization of another section,
based on educated, skilled and well paid la
bor demanded protection, a struggle went
on which ended in all the horrors of civil
war, and the triumps of the superior form
of civilization. Among our own States,then.
bound together as they are by every patriot
ic tie, by the memories OF common toll and
a common ancestry, peaceful free trade has
been found impracticable, except under the
establishment of system of labor and So
ciety as nearly uniform as possible, and it is
upon identity of labor, and industry, alone
that the peace we now enjoy can be perma-
nent When agriculturers and manufactures
shall have really Joined hands here, with a
common understanding and a mutual inter-
est, controlled by domestic competition, and
| lOOklu8 uldlIly W iudI hCtS, lHC COulCob
will cease. Theories will surrender to facts.
Admirers of foreign industry will be lost in
admiration of their own country. And they
will learn that the same organization of in
dustry which fed our great armies during the
war, and furnished arms, equipments, and
ordance, and transportation entirely equal
to the great occasion, will develop the re-
sources of our country until the burthen of
war debt will be easily borne, taxation will
be reduced, our currency will be equivalent
to coin, and our credit and honor will be
known and admired of all men. - goa
We should not forget that we are citizens
of the most active, industrious, and aspiring
of all nations. We all labor-or think we do.
The distinctions which wealth creates are as
temporary and feeting as the generations
. which follow each other, in quick succession
into forgetfulness and oblivion. We are all
capitalists-or intend to be. Industry here
outruns everything else. 1t occupies new
J. lands, opens new mines, advances thou
sand miles to-day as quickly as it advanced
ten a; half century ago. builds mills on
eyery stream, and railroads along all the
valleys. And for all these purposes, and for
that incessant traffic in which every American
| is engaged the demand for capitol is vastly
greater than with any other equal population
on the face of the earth. And this is well
The prosperity Of a free Republic cannot be
shaken, so long as the enterprise of its citi
zens keeps ahead OF the accumulation of cap
ital. With cheap and idle money, its ener-
vation and decay will begin. believe there
fore, in WELL PAID LABOR AND WELL PAII
CAPITAL, for a free and enterprising people
b where all are laborers and all expect to bt