Year: 1867

labor, and imposing such heavy du-
ties upon all foreign manufactured
articles, as to prevent the possibility
of competition from abroad. Not only
should individual enterprise and in
dustry be thus encouraged, but all
public works, liberal and properly
restricted general railroad system,
and internal improvements of every
kind, receive the fostering care and
most liberal aid of the government.
We are rich in every thing necessary
to meet our wants, and render us in
dependent vi every other country, and
we have only to avail ourselves of
our own resources and capabilities, to
progress continually onward to a de-
gree of greatness never yet attained
by any nation. Our agricultural,
mineral and manufacturing resour-
ces are unequalled, and it should be
our constant study to devise and
prosecute means tending to their
highest development.


Why, then, should not the wisdom
Of government make available the
teachings Of experience, and at once
legislate for the manifest good of the
people? Why permit our manufac-
turers to beg that they may live


The government of Great Britain
has, by her protective system, "piled
duty upon duty" for more than one
hundred and fly years. and hence
upon protection is founded her manu-
featuring supremacy. Yet her ennis
saries come to this country, and for
sinister purposes, extol free trade" +"
speak scoffingly of protection" and
endeavOr to persuade our people to
believe and adopt the absurd theory,
that tariffs hinder the develop
ment of industry and the growth of
wealth"


The great Republican party, in the
Convention which nominated Abra-
ham Lincoln, in Chicago, in 1860, as
il preparing for the very war which
most of our statesmen were at that
period anxious to postpone, adopted
a resolution, (which" to use the Ian
guage Of an eminent Pennsylvania,
declared that the produce Of the
farm should no longer be compelled
to remain inert and losing interest
while waiting demand in distant mar
kets; that the capital which daily
took the form of labor power should
no longer be allowed to go to waste :;
that the fuel which underlies our soil
should no longer there remain to be
mere support for foreign rails that
the power which lay then petrified in
the form Of coal should everywhere
be brought to aid the human arm !;
that our vast deposits Of iron ore
should be made to take the form of
engines and other machinery, to be
used as substitutes for mere muscu-
lar force and that all our wonderful
resources, material and moral, must
and should be at once developed
Such was the intent and meaning Of
the brief resolution then and there
adopted, to be at the earliest practi-
cable moment ratified by Cougrcss,as
proved to be the case when the Nor
rill tariff, on the memorable ID Of
March, 1861, was made the law of
the land. To that law, aided as it
was by the admirable action of the
Treasury in supplying machinery of
circulation, we stand now indebted
for the fact that we haNe,in the short
space of five years, produced more
food. built more houses and mills,
opened more mines, constructed more
roads than ever before, and 50 great
ly added to the wealth of the country,
that the property of the loyal States
would this day exchange for twice
the quantity of gold than could FIVE
years since have been obtained for
all the real and personal property,
southern chattcls excepted, of the
States and territories of which the
Union stands composed"


II the principle of protection prov
ed to be such a talisman in the time
Of war, shall we reject it in time of
peace! If an answer were needed
to this question, reference could be
had to the repeated concessions to
this principle by the recent free-trad-
ers Of the South Scarcely one Of the
ambitious men who led their unfor-
tunatc people into rebellion. but now
admits that if the South mad manu-
factured their own fabrics. Oh their
own plantations, and cultivated skill
ed labor in their great cities, they
would have been able TO prolong their
conflict with the government and
now to cuioy substantial, instead Of
artificial prosperity, they must invoke
the very agencies they had SO long
and fatally disregarded. Words need
not be multiplied upon this import
ant theme, either to make my own
position stronger, OF to impress upon
the people the value oi adhering to a
system which has proved itself wor
thy Of our continued support, and of
the imitation Of its former opponents.


FINANCES


The exhibit of the finances of the
Commonwealth, as presented in the
late annual message Of my predeces-
s0r, and the report of the State Treas
urer, is certainly very gratifying !:
and the fattering prospect Of the
speedy extinguishment Of the debt
which has been hanging, for so many
years, like a dark cloud over the pros,
poets Of our State, combined with the
| hope that a reasonable reduction will
be made in our habitual and annual
expenditures, will cheer the people
onward in the pathway of duty.


Among the most del cate and i'm
portant obligations required Of those
in official positions, is a strict and
4