The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-04-18
JEFFERsoN1AN PROTECTION.


Carter Harrison had disturbed the placid
current of monotonous free-trade ora
tory Mr.. William Henry Hurlbert,
editor of the New York World, said: Not
until 1924 was the notion of protective
tax OH commerce, as that tax is now under
stood and enforced in this country, ever
formulated and advocated in an American
Congress-" OF course no one may tell what
Mr. Hurlberts motion of protective tax"
may be, nor can we surmise how he regards
it as understood" in this country; but,
taking the commonly-accepted Interpretation
of "the protective tax"-the tariff-and
nothing could be further from the truth
than Mr.. Hurlberts assertion. The fact is
that from the time q tariff for revenue was
laid at all there was coupled with it the idea
of protection to home industry and that
has continued TO be the fundamental princ-
pie of at least one of the great political par
ties in the country from the day of the first
American Congress to the present. When
Madison introduced his bill for imposts to
supply the empty treasury, the debates in
Congress will show that it was at once pro-
posed that the measure should be one
imposing "sumptuary restrictions on
articles of luxury, and also encouraging the
productions of our country and protecting
our infant manufactures" AS much rdicule
as they please may be cast upon the idea of
protecting infant industries by free traders,
but the principle and the policy were heard
Of and heard of effectually, in the very first
Congress; and the first tariff bill, which was
the first law passed by the American Con-
gress was based upon the principle expressed
in the words we have quoted. Tariff and
protection thus started simultaneously in
the governments legislation, and by the
votes of the men who passed the constitu-
ton, and who certainly should have been
able to understand its provisions. In the
light of congressional history nothing could
be more puerile than the cry now and then
heard that tariff, in which protection as
well as revenue is regarded, is unconstitu-
tional.
The Iroquos banquet was given upon the
anniversary of the birthday of Thomas JEFF
ferson, and the speeches were devoted to
eulogizing Jeffersonian Democracy which
by some strange puzzle was made to
be synonymous with free trade
What Mr.. Jefferson's views upon
the question were are set forth in a re-
port he made upon "the privileges and re-
strictions of the commerce of the United
States" In that report Mr.. Jefferson said;
"When a nation imposes high duties on
our productions, or prohibits them alto
gether, it may be proper to do the same by
theirs, first burdening or excluding those
productions which they bring here in COM
petition with our own of the same kind: Sc
lecting next such manufa ctures as we take
from them i'll greatest quantity, and which,
at the same time, we could the soonest fur
nish to ourselves or obtain from other coun-
tries imposing on them duties light at first,
but heavier and heavier afterwards as other
channels of supply open.
such duties, leaving the indirect effect of
encouraging domestic manufactures of the
same kind may induce the manufacturer
himself to come into these States, where
cheaper subsistence, equal laws, and q vent
the highest profits from his skill and indus
try The expressions of our agriculture in
foreign parts would thus be made the occa-
sion of relieving it from a dependence on
the counsels and conduct of others, and of
promoting arts, manufactures and popula-
ton at home"
In the case of Germany, to which the
Journal alluded yesterday, which has abso-
lutely prohibited the importation of Ameri
can pork, Mr. Jefferson would have applied
the principles of retaliatory legislation
which every government must do as matter
of self7pl election. The great father of De-
mocracy was burdened with no moonshine
notions about free trade such as we're dribbled
forth at Chicago by Dir. Bayard, Mr.. Everett
p. Wheeler and Mr.. Hurlbert
In his message of Dec. 2, 1906
as President, to Congress then in session,
Mr. Jefferson, after showing that the rev.
enue was in excess of governmental ex-
penses said;
THE question now comes forward, to what
other objects shall these SURPRISES be appro-
priated and the whole surplus of import
after the entire discharge of the public debt
and during those intervals when the pur-
poses of war shall not call for them? Shall
we suppress the import and give that advan-
tage to foreign over domestic manufactures
Then, putting himself in the place of the
great body of the common people, Mr. JEFF
ferson answers his own question by saying:
"Their patriotism would certainly prefer
its continuance and application to the great
purposes of public education, roads. rivers,
canals, and such other objects of public i'm
provement as it may be thought proper to
add to the constitutional enumeration of
federal power"
That is the kind of free trader Mr.. Jeffer-
son WAS At lie present day be Monld be In