Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1884-06-27
Blaine's Protection Views,

says:
"The slavery question was not
the only one which developed into
chronic controversy between GER
tain elements of Northern opinion
and certain elements of Southern
opinion. A review Of the sectional
struggle would be incomplete if it
did not embrace anarrative of those
differences on the tariff which at
times led to serious disturbance,
and, on one memorable occasiOn,to
an actual threat of resistance to the
authority Of the Government. The
division upon the tariff was never
so accurately defined by geOgraph-
ical lines as was the division upon
slavery; but the aggressive ele-
ments on each side Of both ques-
tions finally coalesced in the same
States, North and South. MaSsa-
chusetts and South Carolina march
ed in the vanguard Of both contro-
versies; and the States which res
pectively followed on the tariff is
sue were, in large part, the same
which followed on the slavery ques-
ton, on both sides of Mason and
Dixon's line. Anti-slavery zeal and
a tariff for protection went hand in
hand in New England, while pro-
slavery principles became nearly
identical with free trade in the Cot
ton States. If the rule had its ex-
ception it was in localities where
the strong pressure Of special inter
est was operating, in the case of
the sugar-planter of Louisiana, who
was willing to concede generous
protection to the cOtton-spinner OF
Lowell if he could thereby secure
an equally strong protection, in
his own field of enterprise, against
the pressing competition Of the is
land of Cuba.
"The general rule, after years of
experimental legislation, resolved
itselfinto protection in the one sec
tion and free trade in the other.
\ And this was not an unnatural di-
vision. Zeal against slavery was
necessarily accompanied by an ap-
probation of the dignity of free
labor; and free labor was more
/ generously remunerated under the
stimulus of protective laws. The
same considerations produced a
directly opposite conclusion in the
South, where those interested in
slave labor could not afford to build
up a class Of free labOrers with high
wages and independent opinions.
The question was indeed one of the
kind not infreQuently occurring in
the adjustment Of public policies
where the same cause is continual
ly producing different and appar-
emily contradictory effects when
the field of its operation is chang
ed.
"The issues growing out of the
subjects of the tariff were, however,
in many respects entirely distinct
from the slavery question. The one
involved the highest moral consid-
erations, the other was governed
solely by expediency. Whether
one man could hold property in
another was a question which took
deep hold of the cOnsciences Of men,
and was either right or wrong in
itself. But whether the rate of duty
upon foreign import should be
increased or lowered was a Ques-
ton to be settled solely by business
and financial considerations. Sla-
very in the United States, as long
experience had proved, could be
most proftably employed in the
cultivation of cotton. The cost of
its production, in the judgment of
those engaged in it, was increased
by the eopperatiOn Of tariff, where
as its price, being determined by
the markets of the world, derived
no benefit from protective duties.
The clothing Of slave, the harness
for the horses and mules, the plOws
the rope, the bagglng, THERON ties,
were all, they cOntended, increased
in price to the planter without any
corresponding advance in the mar
ket value of the product. In the
beginning of the controversy 1T
was expected that the manufacture
of cotton would grow up side by
side with its production, and that
thus the community which produ-
ced the fiber would share in the
profit of the fabric. During this
period the Representatives from the
Cotton States favored high duties /;
but as time wore on, and it became
edident that slave-labor was not
adapted to the factory, and that 1t
was undesirable if not impossible
te introduce free white labor with
remunerative wages side by side
with unpaid slave-labor, the lead
| ing minds of the South were turned
against the manufacturing interest,