Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1884-07-04

whose people had lately been her
subjects and might now become
her rivals. The principle of pro-
tecting the manufactures and en-
couraging the navigation of Am
erica had been distinctly proclaim
ed in the first law enacted by the
new government, and was thus
made in suggestive and emphatic
sense the very cornerstone of the
republican edifce which the patri-
OTIS of the Revolution were aiming
to construct.
"The opinions of Mr.. Madison as
thus shown in the first legislation
by Congress are the more signif-
can't from the fact that he belonged
to the JeGersonian school, believed
in the strictest construction of
granted power, was a Jealous Re-
publican in the partisan divisions
of the day, and was always OPP
posed to the more liberal, or, as he
would regard them, the more
latitudinarian views Of the Federal
party. In regard to the protection
and encouragement of manufac-
lures there seemed to be no radical
difference between parties in the
early period of the Government.
On that issue, to quote a phrase
used on another occasion, 'they
were all Federalists and all Re-
publicans.' Mr.. Hamilton's Gel
ebrated report on manufactures,
submitted in answer to a request
from the House of Representatives
of December, 1870, sustained and
elaborated the views on which
Congress had already acted, and
brought the whole influence of the
executive department to the support
of protective tariff. Up to that
period no minister of finance among
the oldest and most advanced
countries of Europe had so ably
discussed the principles on which
national prosperity was based.
The report has long been familiar
to students of political economy,
and has had, like all Mr. Hamil-
toms work, a remarkable value and
a singular application in the de-
yelopments of subsequent years.
"Mr. Hamilton sustained the plan
of encouraging home manufactures
by protective duties, even to the
point in some instances of making
those duties equivalent to prohl.
bition.' He did not contemplate a
prohibition duty as the means Of
encouraging a manufacture not al
ready dOmesticated, but declared
it 'only fit to be employed when
manufacture has made such a pro-
gress, and is in so many hands, as
to insure a due competition and an
adequate supply on reasonable
terms This argument did not
seem to follow the beaten path
which leads to the protection OF
infant manufactures but rather
aimed to secure the home market
for the strong and well-developed
enterprises. Mr.. Hamilton did not
turn back from the consequences
which his argument involved. lie
perceived its logical conclusions
and frankly accepted them. lie
considered 'the monopoly of the
domestic market to its own manu-
facturers as the reigning policy OF
manufacturing nations and declar-
ed that "a similar policy on the
part of the United States in every
proper instance was dictated by the
principles of distributive justice,
certainly by the duty of endeayor-
ing to secure to their own citizens
a reciprocity of advantages de
avowed his belief that 'the internal
competition which takes place soon
does away with everything like
monopoly, and by degrees reduces
the price of the article to the mini
mum of a reasonable profit on the
capital employed. This accords
with the reason of the thing ana
with wh oTnor;eace.' He contended
flat 90 reduction has in several
Instances Immediately succeeded
establishment of domestic manufac-
ture.' But even if this result should
not follow, he maintains that lin a
national view a temporary enhance
ment of price must always be well
compensated by permanent re-
duction ofit.' The doctrine of pro-
lection, even with the enlarged ex-
perience of subsequent years, has
never been more succinctly or more
felicitously state d.
"Obiections to the enforcement
of the 'protective'p principle founded
on a lack of constitutional power
were summarily dismissed by Mr..
Hamilton as 'having no good foun.
dation' He had been member OF
the convention that formed the
Constitution, and had given atten-
ton beyond any other member to
the clauses relating to the collection
and appropriation of revenue. He
said the power to raise money as
embcdied in the Constitution lis
plenary and indefnite,' and the
objects for which it may be appro.
priated are no less comprehensive
than the payment of the public
debts, the providing for the common
defense and the general welfare
He gives the widest scope to the
phrase general welfare and de-
cIares that lit is of necessity left to
the discretion of the national Leg
islature to pronounce upon the ob.
iects which concern the general
welfare, and for which under that
description an appropriation OF
money is requisite and proper Mr..
Hamilton elaborates his argument
on this head with consnmmate
power, and declares that 'the only
qualification to the power OF ap-
--z...:o4;o,, ,,o1ar tho ,ahro co tOQn-