Year: 1867




American Free-Trade League, from
its headquarters in New York City.
The president Of the League, w. c.
Bryant:


To the American People:


Our country occupies an advanced
position on the question of personal
rights. Yet in some instances other
nations 60 farther than we do in per-
hitting, to the individual, liberty Of
action. The most valuable right of
man is the right to enjoy the fruits of
bis own labor This right is essential
TO his best development, physically
and morally 1t is not enough that
the farmer should be free to raise all
tho grain he can grow; nor the me
chanic be free to exert his skill in
handiwork they should be free to
procure, in exchange for wheat they
have produced, the utmost Of all other
things that they want In defense
of this right the American Free-Trade
League is working


If there were no protective tariffs,
the great crop of the West, so much
of il as is not consumed at home,
would procure for the men and wo-
men who have produced it personal
comforts of double measure compared
with those they now get from it. So
also of the crops Of cotton and tobac-
co. If the whole surplus crop Of the
West in grain or pork and beef, so
much as is exported, could be put
into the hands Of one agent and he be
authorized to carry it abroad and
there sell it and bring back the pro-
cseds in the shape of goods free Of
duty at our Custom House, we would
get for the surplus crop, twice as
many blankets, twice as many clothes,
and twice as much railroad iron as
we now get The great want Of the
country, increased railroad transpor-
tation, would be much more cheaply
and therefore much more rapidly sup
/ piled


On the other hand, protective tar
ifs can, in no way ana in no degree,
increase the prices Of our grain, pork,
beef, cotton tobacco or other articles
which we export; for the prices Of
these abroad are regulated by the
general specie prices Of the world,
and the prices here at home Of our
exports must necessarily be governed
by the prices Of these things abroad


Nor do protective tariffs do good
in the main towards developing man
ufactures among us. The occupations
which are Of themselves profitable at
Ufns porf0J, ;s, tiaia country, will be
undertaken without any stimulus from
government. The interference of gov
ernment with natural laws in this
respect simply wastes labor.


The ee-Trade League asks that
custom house duties shall be laid sim
ply for revenue and shall cease TO be
laid for the purpose Of keeping cheap
goods out Of reach Of our people. The
farmer and the laborer would then be
free to buy foreign clothes, or domes.
tic clothes, foreign blankets or domes-
tic blankets, or foreign iron or domes-
tic iron, whichever he might find
cheapest Until he is allowed this
free choice, be is not free man in the
use and disposal of his labor


The Free-Trade League hold that
no government ever was wise enough
or ever will be wise enough to regu-
late the private business Of the people,
so as to prescribe to them what they
shall buy and what they shall not buy
or to what market or to what shop
they shall 90 to buy what they need.


We oppose a tariff framed with a
view Of legislating money out Of the
pockets Of the many into the pockets
of the few.


The experience of England and
France under the commercial treaty
promoted by Golden, is that with a
reduction of onc-third in the rate Of
duties, the revenue of both govern
ments has increased and the condition
of the people in both countries has
been greatly improved by spreading
moro widely among them the comforts
of living.


We have the most skillf0l ship
builders and the best ship-oarponters
of any in the world, and yet We arc
unable to build ships. Onr ship-build-
ers are idle. Why? Because the
custom-houso duties on the materials
out of which to construct ships, arc
prohibitory to our mechanics and pro
teotive to the foreign workmen. OF
the vas feet of steamers running be-
tween Europe and America, not one
now carries the American flag. A
nation which, like ours, has its bor-
ders upon two oceans, can not safely
permit itself to be driven from the
seas by its own bad legislation


We ask your support in behalf Of
your own interests, to the principles
we advance, to wit that every man
should be left free to buy with his
labor what he may need wherever he
can buy il cheapest; that the pros
perity Of the cummunity is best pro
noted by government letting private
business alone that all mon are enti-
tied to equal protection from govern
mcnt and that for government to give
special protection to some interests
is to rob all others that TO tax labor
for the special benefit Of the owners
of coal-mines and iron-mines, of ioun-
dries and factories, is 20 make all
other classes ol the community work
for these few, TO make all others, in
fact, so far slaves to the avarice OF
these few.


Live so as to be prepared for short
life, and you may ornament many
years happily.