The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1891-06-20

deny the truth and validity of this
principle, and to take the position
that trade, swift and immediate,
among the men of this Common
wealth is to them any other thing
than benefit; nor are there any of
us prepared to deny that the ex-
change of our horses, which the Hi
nois farmer needs, for his wheat
and corn which in year of drouth
we need, is any thing other than q
benefit to both him and us: or that
the exchange Of our coke, coal, and
oil for the Penn. manufacturer
wagons, mills, and plows, that the
exchange of our cattle and sheep
which the man in New York needs
for food, for his manufactured ar
ticles which we need for clothing is
any thing else than a benefit to both
of us although we reside in different
States and are separated by hun
dreds of square miles of mountains
and valleys.
If then it is true that exchange
between men separated by few
miles is a good thing, separated by
fifty miles is a good thing, separated
by hundreds of miles is still good
thing, we must lay it down as an
infallible law, that the unrestricted
exchange of that which one man has
and another man needs, for that
which the other man has and this
man needs is benefit to both men, no
matter where upon the face of the
earth they may be- In other words,
if trade between man and man is a
benefit to both men, if trade between
county and county is La4efit to
both counties, if trade between
State and State is benefit to both
States, then assuredly and as a
natural consequence, trade between
nation and nation is a benefit to both
nations, for the products and condi-
tions of the nations of the world,
present at the same time no greater
similarity and no wider diversity,
than the various products and con
ditions of the forty four States of the
Union.
If the theorem is true, the con-
verse of the theorem is also true.
We know that nothing can be both
benefit and detrigent, both an
advancement and retrogression,
both blessing and curse to the
same man at the same time; conse-
quently if that which facilitates
trade between man and man is a
good thing for both men, then that
which binders trade between man
and man is bad thing for both men.
Ii thatwhich facilitates trade between
county and county is a good thing
for both counties, then that which
binders trade between county and
county is a bad thing for both coun-
ties. If that which facilitates tr
between State and State is a good
thing for both States, then that
which binders trade between State
and State is a good thing for both
States. If, Gentlemen, that which
facilitates trade between nation and
nation is good thing for both ma
tions, then assuredly and as natur-
al consequence, that which binders
trade between nation and nation is
bad thing for both nations.
If any man doubts this conclusion
of his own reason, against high and
unnatural restrictions upon inter
national trade, if he doubts the
teachings Of his own intelligence,
let him turn from it for moment
and question the oracle, that stands
out in bold relief against the back
ground Of the ages-that marble face
whose passionless eyes have looked
in stony calmness on the rise and
fall of nations; as the Invisible
Essence of all good spun and clip
ped their thread of life; and whose
ears have listened in passionles 81
lence, to the melodious songs of hap
piness, the shrill ecstatic shouts of
triumph, and the long wild wall of
woe Let him ask that silent wit
ness whom men call History, wheth-
er since the dawn of time, there has
ever been an instance of an empire or
republic that has been ruined from
having tomuch commerce. Let him
put his question and listen. Its
placid lips will tell him, that Phoen-
icia, situated at the gate way of
three great continents, where every
wind that swept into her city gates,
and every billow that rolled upward
into her ports from the majestic
ocean bore upon its bosom the pro
ducts of every country for exchange
and barter with her citizens, and
that while Phoenicia remained the
market place Of Nations, the Genius
of wealth and prosperity sat side by
side throned by the temples of Tyre.
Not until the pirates of the sea and
the robbers of the land had blocked.
her ports and closed her city gates,
did the prosperity of Phonoecia
crumble in the hand of retrogression.
1t will tell him that the Arabian car
ayans that crept into Alexandria
like the desert shadows, guided her
palaces with gold. 1t will tell him
that Carthage, whose magnifcence
dazzled the eyes of the world, was the
direct offspring of the conjoint union
of trade by land with trade by sea;
and that she maintained with grand
eur the concentrated hate of the I'm
peral Empires, until the Roman
eagles, lifting from the battle field,
dipped their beaks in the blood of
her commerce, and it will tell him
that the trade of two continents
raised from the Shiny ooze of the
dark Bosphoros the majestic capitol
Of the Byzantine empire, and not
until the follower Of the Prophet had
for a quarter Of century set his
Saraeen hordes in the avenues Of her
commerce. did the civilization of 4