The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-14
FORMIDABLE FREE TRADE AR
GHAENT

attempts at it's enforcement, aroused an
amount of popular indignation which should
have taught England that she could not main
tain her hold upon her American colonies
without tempering her rule with the full
measure Of simple justice. Among the inn
mediate results of this iniquitous measure
was q very general resolution on the part of
the colonists to desist from the purchase of
any fabrics of British manufacture and the
substitution in their place of material for
clothing of home and homely make. On the
18th of March, 1766, scarcely year after
its passage, the Stamp Act was repealed, but
the repeal was coupled with the declaration
by Parliament of its right 10 tax America at
its discretion. This qualification, however,
the colonists were disposed to overlook for
the time, in their sincere qualification at the
abandonment of an attempt to put the
asserted right in practice When the news of
the repeal reached this city, about two
months after it had received the sanction of
Parliament, it created sensation scarcely in
ferior to that caused by the intelligence of
the passage of the act year before. Busi-
ness of all sorts was abandoned, and the day
given up to universal rejoicing. On the fol-
lowing day, the spirits of the good people of
Philadelphia were even more iubilant, and
their exuberauce could find fitting express
sion only in a grand dinner at the State
House, presided over by the Mayor, and the
company including as invited guests all
the high British officials within
reach of an invitation. The list
of toasts drunk on the occasion, which, with
other interesting Details we find in the last
instalment of Westcott's ''History of Phila-
delphia, now in course of publication in the
Sunddy Dispatch, shows how earnest were
the people of this city at least in manifesting
their gratitude for the repeal of the obnoxious
law, and their devotion to the mother country
which an utterly unjust policy alone could
crush out. 1t included the King, the Queen,
the Prince of Wales and the Royal Family
en- nsaSSe, both Houses of Parliament, the
present worthy ministry" the GLORIOUS
and immortal Mr.. Pitt, the army and navy,
the wish that ''the illustrious House of
Hanover" might ''preside over the Uaited
British Empire to the end of time,' and
further that the interests of Great Britain
and her colonies might be always inseparable;
with o sprinkling of such sentiments as "the
Virginia Assembly" ''the other Assemblies
on the continent actuated by the like zeal for
the liberties of their country" and ''the
liberty Of the press in America by way of
warning to the English rulers and people that
a return to the Stamp Act policy would be
the signal for recantation of all the devotion
and gratitude manifested in the other part of
the programme. But the most significant
event of the occasion was the adoption by
the company assembled at the banquet some
three hundred in number, of the following
resolution
'That to demonstrate our affection to Great Bril-
tain and our gratitude for the repeal OF the Stamp
Act each Of US WILL on the 4th of June next, being
the birthday OF our most gracious sovereign George
| III, dress ourselves In new suit OF the manufac
lures OF England, and give what homespun we have
| to the poor"
Thus, for the sake of emphasis, the repre-
| sentative people of Philadelphia on this occa-
sion formally abandoned the position which
| they had taken against the encouragement
of British manufactures as a means of retalia-
tion for the tyrannical exercise of power by
the mother country. 1t had been perceived
| by the colonists at the very outset that the
| building up of their home industries would
not only enable them to get along without
| dependence upon foreign manufactures, but
| would at the same time strike a serious blow
at the prosperity of the country whose rulers
| had become infatuated with the notion that
an American had no rights which an English
| man was bound to respect. "Homespun" was
in truth the first phase in which the demand
| for independence shaped itself, and the aban-
| donment of ''homespun" was the token of a
reconciliation based upon a return to justice
on the part of England, SO complete that it
could be manifested only by the acknowledge
ment of entire dependence upon England for
nearly all the necessaries of life, as we'll as for
the benefits of stable government and pro-
| lection. '..
At the present day, England manufactures
ten times as many goods and wares of differ
ent kinds as she consumes or can afford to
consume. The immense surplus she offers to
| the outside world, and if the markets of the
outside world were all closed to her, starva-
| ton or emigration would be the only alterna-
tives presented to nine-tenths of her opera.
tives But the question presented by the
free-trade issue is just this;-Shall the Ameri-
can people be content to clothe themselves in
English fabrics, and to build their railways of
English iron, to the utter ruin of all their
home manufactures, simply to enable the Eng
lish,. manufacturer to grow rich from the labor
of underpaid and underfed millions? The
opponents of protection had better take re-
| fupe at onca in the arpument of affection and