The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1889-10-22
THE AMERICAN CONGRESS.

President, the congress adjourned
until November 18th. The time III
tervening is being occupied by the
delegates visiting the chief cities and
and other points of interest through
out the n orthern States, as guests
of the government. 1t is understood
that they will also visit the South
before their departure from this coun,
try. They will thus become impress
sed not only with our territorial
granduer, but with the vast, varied
and unequalled resources of the
United States. They will then be il
a position to better appreciate the
advantages and strength of com
mercial and other alliances with a
people of such wonderful progress
and boundless resources.
In many respects it is the most re-
markable congress that ever con-
vened. The members represent a
territorial area three times as large
as all Europe, which could sustain a
population Of two hundred million.
The imagination fails to grasp the
immensely OF the productive resour-
ces Of such a territory, with such val
leys as the Mississippi, the Amazon
and the LaPlata. Other sections
constitute Natures great store house
where, for ages untold, she has stored
her gold, silver, iron, tin, copper and
other metals, awaiting the advent Of
railways and machinery to unlock
"God's great granite safes" and en-
rich the world.
That such a territory, capable OF
being connected by railway over land
routes, should be commercially united
seems patent to the most casual ob-
server. The breaking down of "pro-
tective" barriers, and the CONNER
cia union Of the great Western
Hemisphere, would secure TO the
United States position Of com
handing influence, and give her a
wealth never cqu&led, even by the
dreams of avarice.
But will the party in power take
advantage Of the opportunity: VIII
the President and the representative,
he has appointed to this Congress
rise up to the full measure Of the oc,
casion: We fear not. The Repub-
lican party seems determined to
81 live or die" in advocacy of ultra
protection. They have built a tar
tf wall around this country, which,
if raised much higher, will equal
Chinese wall of exclusion.
The Republican policy has driven
the American flag from the interna-
tional commerce Of the world, and
what American capital is invested
in foreign commerce to-day must
hide itself under foreign flag. OF
the two hundred million dollars paid
on frcights to and from this country
during the last fiscal year, about
one hundred and seventy million
was paid to foreign ship owners, and
only about thirty million dollars to
American ship owners. Their high
ly protective and prohibitory duties
upon imported goods can be sustain
Ell on no other ground but that for
cign trade is injurious, and they at
tempt to defend their position by
the cheap clap-trap that American
markets must be kept exclusively for
American productions. Their entire
legislation tends to the breaking
down Of foreign commerce and for
cling our people to the home market
for all they purchase or produce.
If, then, foreign commerce is the
evil that Republican Legislation de-
clares it to be, how do these "protcc-
tive" delegates propose to build up a
commerce with South and Central
America? Their only answer is to
subsidize some commercial lines. But
to overtax the people to exclude for
eign commerce, as the Republicans
do through their tariff laws, and
then to take the surplus and subsidize
favored corporations to build up a
foreign carrying trade, is clearly so
absurd that it can not be defended i.