The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-01-12
THE TARIFF IN NEW JERSEY.
An Instructive Talk with New Jersey De m
ocrat-HamiIton and the Adamses

An Instructive Talk with New Jersey De M
Ocrat-HamIton and the Adamses.
Gath's New York Letter,
Iasked a Jerseyman recently what might be Mr..
Dickerson, who, a Democrat, recently ex-
pressed his differences with the Presidents mes
sage. Said my friend:
1.-The Dickersons. of New Jersey. rank at the
head of our public life and private character.
They originally came TO Massachusetts, and en-
igrated thence to Long Island over two hundred
years ago, and from Long Island they went to
the vicinity of Morristown, New Jersey. There
is a large descent of them, who spell their names
Dickerson and Dickinson. Mahlon Dickerson
out of Princeton College, and served in
the expedition against the whiskey insurrection
under WashingtOnS administration. Mahlon
went on the supreme bench in New Jersey.
and was Governor and Chancellor. He was
United States Senator for sixteen years, and
ranked among the old-fashioned Republicans
who were opposed to Calhoun in his doctrines.
and more friendly to William H Crawford
than to Adams or jackson In the Dickerson
property in New Jersey were iron mines. This
may account for the protective tariff views of
the Dickersons, but then they have had these
views ever since the tariff of 1928, whom Re-
publican administration and Congress passed
the first memorable tariff. Philemon Dicker-
son, Mahion's brother, settled at Paterson, N.
j., and from that town became Governor of the
State In 1886, and finally President Van Buren,
made him United States Judge, and he held the
Office twentyone years dying in 1862 Paterson
to carry into effect the American system of
manufactures upon large SCALE such as was
adopted at Lawrence, Lowell and other places in
the East"
'.Is New Jersey a thorough going tariff State?"
Eyes; there is hardly free trader in the
State of any magnitude and the magnitude of
these men is largely in their own estimation
everywhere. If free trade a new doctrine
just about being introduced among different
nations it could naturally have some partisans
in this country, but the policy OF the United
States in this regard goes back to the first
Congress and to the report of Hamilton
manufactures, and the protection given IN those
early days. though nominally lower than at
present, was all that was then required. while
the additional protection bestowed after our
civil war was the result both of the necessity for
money to conduct the and of the more set
tied policy of the different nations upon this
subject, brought about by the revolution in the
steam marine of the world.
THE English had been at work since 1914
making iron vessels and by the time our war
closed, got well under way they had de-
stroyed American commerce, while their mer-
chant marine was big enough to deluge this
country with their manufactured productions.
taking days to cross the ocean where they had
previously required months. Fortunately for
the United States, the invention of the locomo-
tive came about contemporaneousy with the
navigation of the north Atlantic by steamships.
and the Americans were cultlyatng their rail-
road system while the English were putting up
their maritime system, so that the civil war was
hardly over when it was found that we had
another commerce on land and a vast interior OF
country which had become the largest nation in
the world except Russia. OF course, China and
India not to be considered among the mari
ltlme and trading nations.
The American policy of Hamilton came into
favor at the outset and there quarreling
about it until the tariff of 1928 was imposed. LIZ
you will look at that tariff you will find that it
was a Repu blcan measure, and not a Federal
istic measure. 1t passed the House by los votes
to 81, and analysis of that vote will be inter
esting now The two Senators from Maine
voted against the tariff and one Of the Senators
from Massachusetts, another from Rhode Island,
and another from New Hampshire, showing
that the measure was not sectional, but the de-
crepitude of slavery and the restriction of the
Southern interest to DE mainly that OF office
seeking led to the first sectional formation ON
this issue, and in 1880 Mr. Calhoun had the
usual birthday dinner of jefferson given at
Washington City. with qualification of the tariff
laws for its animatng purpose. General Jack
son. who was President, arose and gave the
toast, 1.-THE Federal Union; lt must and shall be
preserved" The attempt to drag jefferson into
the doctrine Of notification this tariff ISSUE
has been repudiated by Mr.. Benton
How do you account, then, for the Adams
family in the present generation stirring UP the
free trade question:
1T all arises from the personal hostility of
old John Adams and his son to Alexander Ham
iltor Hamilton preserving in the country
more infential name than old Mr.. Adams, these
boys have been trying for many years to modest
the name of Hamilton in some way. They have
galvanized old Albert Gallatin and brought him
forth in a huge and neglected biography as a
greater fnancier than Hamilton. Nevertheless.
the tariff of 1928 was the measure of John
Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, his Secretary OF
State. When Hamilton his report
manufacturers he was Washipgtons Secretary
of the Treas ury, and the date of this report,
which communicated to the House of Rep
resentatives on the 9th of December 1871. shows
that we are almost one hundred years old IN the
general practice OF the protective system and that
to revolutionize it without ANT occasion would
be n mere piece of fckleness which would lose
the United States its stand among nations. par
ticuiarly nations at large now have the Amer
system, and such dependencies of England
as Canada not only maintain the American doc
trine, but they maintain the American ratio of
protection.
.'If you will take the Canadian tariff list you
will find that 1t is based upon that of the United
States Iron IN the bar state pays 80 ton duty
in Canada, and nearly all iron pays there from
30 TO 30 cent, There is probability that
the Canadians are going to take off their tariff
10 accommodate either the EuglAsh or The Amer