Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-10-14
HOW GODS GIFTS ARE NULLT.
FLED BY RADICAL LEGISLA.

Il HOW GODS GIFTS ARE MILF
FLED BY RADICAL LEGIsLA.
TION.
From the New Haven tConn-) Evening Register.
We have many times presented the
leading facts of the following article to
our readers, but they are here so strikingly
| grouped that we make the extract. It is
from late free trade speech by Gen.
Brinkerhoff, and we commend it to the
perusal of all who think that another
Republican Congress should be elected
this fall: In every direction in which we
look, this system of protection is cheat
and fraud. 1t has even rendered void
some of the best bounties which God in
his goodness provided for this
nation. He gave us the richest
mines of iron, lead, and copper upon
the globe, and yet through this
tariff protection we have the dearest iron,
and lead, and copper upon the globe. If
all these mines were destroyed to-day, and
with them our tariff system, we would get
all these minerals at least fifty per cent.
| cheaper than we do now. If hole could
be bored into the bottom of the salt lake
at Syracuse, and all the brine in it sent to
China, in company with our Chinese tar
if, we would at once get all the salt we
need at half Its present prices Take a
| few minor items. For instance, borax, q
prime necessity for timers and black
smiths, and also used by the medical
faculty. Ten years ago it was brought
from the island of Sicily, and from Ven
ice, and was sold at this Market for twenty
cents pound Unfortunately, a few
years ago, borax lake was found upon
the Pacific slope, which proved
to be the richest deposit of borax
upon the globe. At this discovery all the
consumers of the borax who heard of il
were ready 20 shout for JOY. But 10, and
behold it went into the hands of a COM
pany, and the company went to Washing
/ ton, and duty went upon the borax, and
to-day we have the felicity of paying for
it SOC. a pound. So with the metal
nickel-a few years ago a mine of it was
discovered in the Congressional district of
Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania; as
usual in such cases it went into the hands
of a company, and the company went to
Washington, but old Thsd Stevens was
reasonable and only let a duty of Is
per cent. go upon it. But the company
found that Is per cent was not prohibi-
tory, and st last Thaddeus Stevens
died, and in his place appeared
man by the name of Dickey, and
Dickey got up the Ways and Means Com
mittee, and now we find bill reported to
the House which puts the tduty on nickel
up to 40 per cent. Bot the thing was too
barefaced, and hence it was cut down to
25 per cent, being an increase of only 10
per cent. upon the former rate. So with
emery, which is largely used in the arts
and formerly came from the Mediterran-
can sea. As bad luck would have it, an
emery mine was discovered a few years
ago IN Massachusetts,, and the result is,
emery has almost doubled in price; and
so we go, and so long as this system of
leg islation continues, we will continue
thus to go. This whole system of
special legislation, whether in the
State or in the nation, is a fearful
evil, and Is sapping the very life blood
of public men and public morals
like the devil fish of Victor Hugo, it
has hundred Shiny arms, and every arm
has hundred greedy suckers, and it il
fast gathering into its hideous grasp all
the powers of legislation, and unless we
can free ourselves quickly the liberties of
the nation will be thing of the past, and
our Republican institutions "will go glim-
mering into the dream of things that
WERE" We have recently shown that as
nation we had energy enough and virtue
enough to spend millions of money, and
also to give the lives of five hundred
thousand of our bravest and our best,
that one great monopoly of the brain,
and bodies and souls of men, might be
broken up, and 1 trust, thereupon, that
we have vitality enough left US to destroy
the swollen monopolies which yet re-
main.