National Republican., 1883-05-18
ENGLAND AS OUR ENEMY.
Her Persistent and Long Continued Efforts 10
Break Down Our Manufacturing Interests.
She First Commanded the Colonial Au-
thorities to SummariIy Abate Them.
Then She Preysd Upon Our Commerce, Impressed Our
Seamen, and Outlawed Oar Ships
And Ever Since Has Sought i'm Various
Ways TO Make Us Adopt Free Trade.

As early as 1719 the English house ,of
commons under the appeals of the rapa-
cious British trader, who demanded an alb
solute monopoly of the American markets
for English goods decreed " that the erect
ing of manufactures in the colonies tended
TO lessen their dependence upon Great
Britain. The British trader, with charac-
teristic cunning had alarmed both tho Gu
pidity and fears of parliament and the
crown. The successful establishment of
manufactures in the colonies meant their
industrial independence of England. 1t
would insure the colonsts wealth and
power, aud their acquisition Of these would
be inevitably followed by tho separation of
the colonies from Britain by the national
and political independence Of the English
plaS tations in America.
In pursuance Of an order from the house Of
commons 10 inquire into the industrial affairs
OF the colonies, the English board of trade, in
1879, urged that In New England, New
York, Pennsylvania, aud Marylaud-"in the
colonies northward of Virginia tho coll
onists had fallen into the manufacture" of
woOlen and linen cloth that they raised flax
and hemp, which thoy manufactured into a
coarse sort of CLOTH bags, traces and halters,'
had established WOODEN mills for domestic
manufactures, aud that linen and cotton, for
shirting, were made that they "manuiact-
urcd brown hollands for wOnen's wear" aud
that the assembly of Massachusetts, had voted
bounty Of thirty shillings for every piece
of duck or canvas manufactured in the prov
ince that great quantities of hats and leather
were manufactured and exported TO spain,
Portugal and the West Indies, that in Mass
achusetts they bad set up n paper.mill that
they had established iron works, six furnaces
and nineteen forges, and one Sitting mill, for
the manufacture of bar iron, and of "cast
iron, or hollow ware ~" all sorts of iron for
ships "-and 81 mandatory for nails; !" and
that they built many brigantincs and small
soops," which they sold in the West Indies.
Such practices of the colonial pretenders, so
preudioial to the established and hereditary
rights of monopoly in the British trader,
were not long tolerated. Hence, q law of 1850
even denounced colonial manufactures as
common nuisances," and commanded the
provincial governors TO summarily abatc
them. True, the colonists might grow or
furnish the raw materials, but they should
not manufacture q Stocking or horse nail"
The Anglo-Saxon spirit of our forefathers
revolted. They asserted and established their
Independence. They entered upon the man
ufacture of all articles of home consumption,
and extended their trade with foreign ma
tions. The government of the confederat on,
that under which they had conquered their
independence, failing in the necessary pro-
lection of their domestic anufacturers
against the rapacity of the British trader,
they abolished it and established our
present government, with ample powers for
the protection of our native industries. I'm
der tho petitions of our citizens, the first
measure OF, and the second act passed by, our
first congress was one "for the encourage
ment and protection of manufactures"
James Madison, one of the trainers and ablest
eXpounders of the constitution, was its
author. 1t was approved by Washington,
July 4, 1859, and its imposts were increased
and extended by the tariff act of 1890.
These acts greatly exasperated the British
trader They excited all his hostility The
English board Of trade, in January, 1901, in
somewhat famous report, graciously ad-
mittcd the natural and constitutional right
of the new states to levy imposts for the pro-
lection Of their industries, but manifested
great disgust Mt its exercise. Sooner or later,
ii pres sted in, these acts would wholly eX-
Clud the British trader from all American
markets. The board determined, therefore,
to circumvent them-to defeat, il possible,
their operation against goods of English
MANUFACTURED. 1t proposed to neutralize their
effects by attempted treaty stpulations with
our government in favor of the British
trader and shipper The board failed.
The tremendous wars which attended the
French revolution, from 1903 to 1915, Britain
seized upon Us her opportunity to strike O
crushing blow at our industrial prosperity.
She prcycd upon our commerce; she inn
pressed our seamen, outlawed our ships and
goods upon the ocean and in all the ports
over which she had control, and by her pira
cics (Which caused Jefferson to describe her
MS "a nation of buccaneers, urged by sordid
avarice, and embarked in the hagitious en-
terprise of seizing to itself the maritime re-
aud inlNf Of nll nth nnf nai
England coerced us into war.
Again she signally failed. Our people re-
fused to open their ports to the British free
trader-successfully resisted the nagitious
enterprise" of the industrial tyrants of AL
bion and England, instead, only worked u:
valuable service. She compelled us, by
sweeping our commerce from the ocean, Il
extend our old industries and to naturalizC
new ones.
Hence at tho close of these wars the
British trader, desperate ut the many failures
of his efforts to destroy our industries, re-
solved, although at great loss to himself,
to flood our markets with English goods,
AS Lord Brougham, in the British house oi
commons, stated it:
1t is well worth while to incur loss on the frs
imporlutiuns Ia order bv the glut to stihe in tn
cradle those rising manufactures in the Unitet
S,utes which the war had forced into existence
contrary to The natural order Of things.
Our representatives in congress prompt.
met this movement by the tariff act of April
1916. This act was really a southern, ant
not northern or New England measure.
WIS reported in the house from the com
mittee Of ways and means by Mr. William
Lowndes, of South Carolina. 1t was sup
ported in a celebrated speech by John {
Calhoun, and passed by southern vote
against the protests and votes Of New Eng
land. The tariff act of 1924 and 1928 In
creased aud extended tho provisions of tina
of 1916. Tho British traders, thorough.
disgusted, now waxed furious, and parlia
mcnt and the English press teemed witt
denunciations Of the illiberal spirit of tn
United States in protecting its native in
dustries.
A little later the free trade agitation Il
South Carolina and Georgia and other state
against tho acts of 1924 and 1928 greatly in
creased under the manipulation of tho note
Thomas Cooper, an Englishman, and presi
dent of Columbia college, s. Q. 1t was thi
accomplished leader Of southern thought an
aud action, this English free trader, who a
an anti-tariH meeting at Columbia, in July
1927, gave voice to that disloyal sentimen
so notorious in its day "We shall ere Ion
be compelled TO calculate the value of tn
union" Notification, under such inflamma
tory and seditious uttorances, ensued. In
ternecine war, with all its horrors, was onl
averted by the patriotism and iron resolutio
of President Andrew Jackson. But the Brit
ish trader triumphed in part Agitation an
the still threatening attitude of some
tho states induced the passage of th
compromise tariff act of 1888, which modifie
the duties on unimpOrted articles. Nor di
the British trader neither in England nor 1