The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-16

1t would be dealt with e foreign ter ritory. that State was perhaps the most immediate cause of the existsncs of that document. The year 17s1 found without even the msans to meet Inter est charges. In this prsdieament the Continental Congress asked permission of the States to levy . tarf6 of dve per cent on imports, with the understand ing that the proceeds should he used debt. and that when this was paid on the duty should cease. All of the States agreed to this except GeorEia and Rhods Island. Georgia finally yielded to the national demand. bur Rhode Island stood pat. and the Con federation could take no action with out the unanimous consent of the States that were psrtis: to It.
 Two years went by without any fur ther action. Then the same request was made in . modified form. Rhode Island was then intensely jealous of her rights as Stato--from the rear that she would lose something because of her smailness-so the proposition
 was made that out of deference 10 the seivas could nominate the ofncsrs to collect the revenue. This time New York proved to be the stumbling block. During the existence of the Confed- eration each State had its own tartn laws, and they were as often leVeieo against other States as against for. eign countries, New Jersey alone held I,our for open and unrestricted free trade with all the world. New York had already become the metropolis ot the nation, and a large proportion or the foreign goods were landed there. Massachusetts and other colonies wers opposed to seeing New York growing rich out of tariffs on goods, that were intended for them. so they proceeded to levy a tarir against everything that came from New York. It was the same elsewhere, Even New Jerseys offer or free trade did not sufice to attract the foreign trade away from New York and consequently petty jealousics sprang up between the Statea-
 nation the laughing stock of the whoie world. When John Adams and other diplomats wanted to make treaties with other nations they were met witn scarcely concealed amusement. They were told that a nation that had not the power to levy a i've per cent duty for the purpose of paying It's debts. able to carry out treaty stipulations with respect to trade. England haught- fly boasted that while she had lost political control of the colonies. shs was more fully in command of their tfade status than ever before.
 Then the colonies began to make threats of retaliation. If the world aid not meet them in proper spirit they would retaliate in kind. But the foreign nations thought they were az impotent in their threats of retaliation as they had been in the efforts to pay the interets on the national debt Some foreign statesman said Of them that they were possessed of the means or contracting debts. but not of settling them; of raising fleets and armies. but not of paying for them: of making treaties. but not of enforcing compii- ance with them. In other words. they were a law without a penalty.
 In this situation 1t became import ant to look for means of forming
 more perfect union This resuitea m the calling of the Constitutional Con yention. At the end of the Revolu- tionary War sentiment was practically unanimous for free and unrestricteo trade with all the world. so far as the national leaders were concerned. UT all the leading statesmen, Hamilton alone stood in favor of protection, But if was not long before many others found that Hamilton was in the right, so far as those early days were con- cerned.
 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 tnat raised by France to help the patriot | cause along. Consequently, the colonies experienced that strange paradox or | having passed through & devastating l war. and at its close having more
 money than at any time oerore us
 beginning This resulted In reKlnot-
 ing of the latent taste Tor Ehsnsh l xrfaa l0nR 1 inc heavy exporations of specie ieft
 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. and some or .he !.
 earlier drafts seem to indicate tha' Congress was to be given the right 10
 law duties against imports for the sole purpose of raising revenue but the later drafts, along with the final one changed the punctuation. Hence
 the constitutionality of protective
 tarifr has always turned upon the plac-
 ing of A comma There is perhaps no
 comma in history that has turned the
 scales of national policy more com
 pletely than the one put into tne rev
 enue- raising clause by the ihakers oA
 the Constitution.
 That the convention was cognizant
 of the protective tarif idea is shown
 by the fact that Pennsylvania then had on her statute books a, tariff law for
 "protecting" home industries. Nearly all of the other States had similar laws though the idea was not set forth as boldly in the preambles as in the case | of Pennsylvania. Tariffs had existed from the beginning of the English colonies. The charter of tho Virginia | Company authorized a tariff Of l-z per cent. against products imported by British subjects. and five per cent against those of foreigners.
 Massachusetts levied the first prohi- bitiye tariff. It was not intended fol "protection" from outside dangers however, but those inside the body po' , litic. It was held that extravagancs 7 was wrong. and in order to enforce simple living .prohib1tive duties were . laid on the importation of those thing; ! regarded as an extravagance. Among ! the items prescribed as dispensible bS the forefathers were such luxuries al
 silk and velvet. This seems to have
 been the first prohibitive tariff evel
 levied In the United States. It wal repealed in 16S6.
 Virginia went step further, ant levied a prohibitive tariff for the pro ] lection of the public morals The importations of sugar anC rum had been carried on so rap ! idly that the Virginia House O. Burgesses decided 1t a menace to thu . morals of the colony. and promptly pu 4 up the tarifr bars against 1t. In l65' Massachusetts passed what was prob 5 ably the first really protective tarif f ever enacted in America. It was Sc , forth in the preamble that the tarif