Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-03-23
AMERICAN TARIFF LAWS
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.
COLONIAL TARIFF LAWS

ousies sprang up between the states.
These conditions made the embryo ma
ton the laughing stock Of the whole
world. When John Adams, and other
diplomats wanted to make treaties
with other nations they were met with
scarcely concealed amusement. They
were told that a nation that mad not
the power to levy a per cent duty for
the purpose of paying it's debts, could
hardly represent itself as being able TO
carry out treaty stipulations with re-
spect to trade. England haughtily boast
ed that while she had lost politicaI con-
troll of the colonies, she was more fully
In command of their trade status than
ever before.
Then the colonies began to make threats
of retaliation. If the world did not meet
them in proper spirit they would retail
ate in kind. But the foreign nauons
thought they were as impotent in their
threats of retaliation as they had been in
their efforts to pay the interest on the
national debt Some foreign statesmen
said of them that they were possessed or
the means of contracting debts. but not
of settling them; of raising fleets ana
armies, but not of paying Tor them' Oh
making treaties but not of enforcing COM
pliance with them. In other words, they
were a law without a penalty.
In this situation it became important
to look for means of forming more
perfect union" This resulted in the call
ing of the constitutional convention. At
the end Of the Revolutionary war senti-
ment was practically unanimous for free
and unrestricted trade with all the world
so far as the national leaders were con-
cerned. Of all the leading statesmen.
Hamilton alone stood in favor of protec-
ton. But it was not long before many
others found that Hamilton was in the
right, so far as those early days were
concerned.
There were good times just after the
revolution. The money England had
spent in the prosecution Of the war had
remained in the colonies; also that raised
by France to help the patrioat cause
along. Consequently, the colonies expe-
rienced that strange paradox Of having
passed through aSdevastating war, and at
it's close having more money than at
any time before it's beginning This result
ed in a reminding of the latent taste for
English gewgaws," and 1t was not long
before the heavy expectations OF specie
left the nation practically shorn of funds
This was the state of affairs when the
constitutional convention met. That body
deliberated a long time over the revenue
clause, ana some OF the carrier QraIIS
seem to indicate that congress was to be
given the right to ley duties against i'm
ports for the sole purpose Of raising rev.
enue. But the later drafts, along with
the final one, changed the punctuation
Hence the constitutionality Of protective
tariff has always turned upon the placing
of a comma. There is perhaps no comma In
history that has turned the scales of ma
tional policy more completely than the
one put into the revenue-raising clause by
the makers of the constitution.
That the convention was cognizant of
the protective tariff idea is shown by the
fact that Pennsylvania then had on her
statute books a tariff law for protect
ing home industries. Nearly all of the
other states had similar laws. though the
idea was not set forth rs boldly in the
preambles as in the case of Pennsylvania.
Tariffs had existed from the beginning Of
the English colonies. The charter of the
Virginia company authorized a tariff of
1-2 per cent against products imported
by British subjects, and per cent against
those of foreigners.
Massachusetts, levied the first prohibit
ton tariff. 1t was not intended for PRO
lection from outside dangers, however,
but those inside the body polite. 1t was
held that extravaganza was wrong, and