not deemed expedient by Government that men should be solely farmers, or that the profits of the farmer should be limited to an exchange with his immediate neighbors; it is deemed expedient that a new branch of industry should be created and fostered by that beneficent agency which wields the Sovereign power of the people; and for this reason light-houses are built and navies are maintained, and as yet our democratic theorists have raised no argument against this wide stretch of sovereignty; they rather seem to glory in it. They have even been at the pains to fabricate a theory for its particular defence; the theory of Free Trade.

"I find no obligation written in the Constitution," says Mr. Meredith, "to lay taxes, duties or imposts, at the lowest rate that will yield the largest revenue." Can it be doubted for a moment that an injunction of the kind would directly contravene the intention of the constitution itself, which has provided for the regulation of all things necessary for the public good; or that the power to regulate commerce and enforce duties given by the constitution, was given for the public good? And would not that be, in spirit, an unconstitutional regulation which destroyed a branch of the national industry? Let us suppose that one third of the population were already engaged in manufacture; would not that be in spirit an unconstitutional regulation which impoverished that third in order that the remaining third might be enabled to live, for a time, more economically? And was not the tariff of forty-six opposed to the general spirit of the constitution when it broke down the national industry and threw out of employment the workers in cloth and iron in order that the cultivators of the earth might procure foreign luxuries at a little lower rate? Is it not protection with a vengeance, to make regulations for the little finger of industry which paralyze the right arm? to make regulations for commerce, tending to a lessening of the material of commerce, and to a depression of that power and intelligence through which it chiefly thrives-the power and intelligence of the artizan?

"If it were true, that a duty laid on a given article with a view to encourage our own productions is unlawful, because it may operate, by discouraging importation,

as a partial prohibition, the proposition would be equally true of every duty laid with that intent, whether it were above or below the maximum revenue rate. But, as under the power to regulate commerce, it is competent for Congress to enact a direct and total prohibition of the importation of any article, it can be no objection to an act levying duties, that it may operate in partially preventing importation. Whether it be wise or just so to levy duties, is another question. What I mean to say now is, that there is no prohibition of it in the constitution. The proposition is maintained, as universally true, that the express grant of a power to Congress gives to that body the right of exercising that power in such manner as in its opinion may be most conducive to the advantage of the country.

'As instances of the exercise of the power of regulating commerce, may be mentioned the prohibition of importations, except at designated ports; the prohibition of the coasting trade to all foreign vessels, and to all American vessels, not licensed and enrolled; the prohibition of certain trade to foreign vessels under the Navigation act of 1817; the prohibition of certain trade to American vessels by the Non-intercourse act, and of all trade by the Embargo act; the drawback on the reexportation of foreign goods; finally, the prohibition of the introduction of adulterated drugs into the country by the act of 26th June, 1848.

"Under the power to levy taxes, duties, and imposts, I refer to the discriminating tonnage duties on foreign vessels, the discriminating duties on their cargoes, the preamble to the first law imposing duties passed under the constitution, and the enactments of most of the subsequent ones.

"These enactments show that at most or all periods of our history the views which I have expressed appear to have been sustained and acted on."

Any provision of the constitution, conferring a certain power, or range of power, upon Congress, is given with the understanding that that power shall be exercised with discretion, and in no instance to the detriment of the national health, liberty, or prosperity. The maxim of Free Trade, that government shall collect its revenues with regard only to its own financial neces

facility and precision. The blind forces of nature are controlled and tempered by a little cord in the hand of a child.

Here, too, there is room for the mysterions pleasure of contemplation. In all those works wherein reason appears, Divinity also is made evident; and hence our wonder and respect for human labor. But it is a weak and ill-cultivated intellect that suffers its admiration for a particular result of human skill to draw it from the true aim of statemanship, the common good. There is a sublimity in the contemplation of the public good, of the moral and physical wellbeing of a people, far more exalting and satisfactory to the intellect than in these contemplations of art and nature. In the recesses of his heart the sincere and liberal statesman must carry the weight of an awful responsibility, and the latent strength of the man, or if we may be allowed the expression, his nearness to God, appears then most when he is called to guide the opinion and advance the interest of a nation.

Of the moral effects of intercourse with foreign nations, much may be said; but the moral effects of intercourse are not measured by the extent of trade. The moral and intellectual power exercised by Germany over America, during the last twenty years, has been so great, it can be compared only with a revolution, and has been in fact, a revolution of ideas, manners and opinions, silent but irresistible and yet the trade with Germany, measured by imports and exports, is so small, its loss would be hardly felt a year or two after its cessation. Were a prohibition laid upon ships from Germany, the mighty industry of America would, in twelve months, supply the void but Germany would not cease therefore to be the intellectual master and teacher of the American people. Were our commercial intercourse with England, even, suspended for a term of years, who doubts that the capital and the energy afloat in that vast and profitable trade, would seek and find new fields of enterprise. Great as such a calamity would indeed be, it would be by no means a permanent or an irretrievable one: not as injurious as the destruction of a single branch of industry: a period of ten years would perhaps be sufficient to heal the wound laid open, to fill up the breach made, to give a new course to power and capital.

Imagine, for comparison, the sudden destruction of the cotton plantations, or of the manufactories of Massachusetts. Imagine a blight of corn, devastating one-half the country, what would be the extinc tion of an English commerce compared with that? We over-estimate the pecuniary advantages of commerce. The Hon. Secretary says that he will not admit that commerce can be ever injurious; but, with all deference, we think it may become so, when its protection becomes a mania with politicians, who, at the same time, are too perversely blind, or too ignorant to see what its true interests are; and who would convert its favor in the minds of the people into an argument for the destruction of that by which it best thrives-for the destruction of manufactures.

The industry of the carrier cannot be set up in rivalry against the industry of the producer. The horse who carries flour to market is not more valuable than the horse who carries it to mill. The carrier himself is not a more estimable man, by vocation, than the farmer or the miller.

In the whole course of this argument the friends of free trade have either neglected to observe, or have kept out of view, the fact that a commerce is more or less valuable as that which it carries has received more or less value from the industry of those who have sent it forth. A trade in gold may indeed prove a very unprofitable trade, even when it is a monopoly. A varied commerce sustained by manufactures, the ship of the exporter conveying the goods which the capital or the industry of his friend or his brother has created out of a coarse and worthless material, other things being equal, must lead to wealth.

Mr. Meredith assumes that all legislation designed to favor a particular class to the prejudice of others, or, worse still, to injure a particular class for the benefit of others, is manifestly unwise and unjust. What then more unjust and injurious than the tariff of 1846, which was enacted, first, to favor the commercial interests to the prejudice of the manufacturers, and, secondly, to injure and depress the manufacturers for the benefit of the agriculturalists and the commercial classes? for though it seem a hard judgment, it is impossible to deny that the advocates of free-trade have discovered a spirit positively and openly

inimical to the artizan. By every argument in their power they have endeavored to diminish our respect for him; they have represented him as lower in the moral scale than his brother the agriculturalist, and they have discovered no remorse for the injury which their measures have inflicted upon him. By inviting a foreign rival to compete with him, they have cut down his wages, and when he came to them with bitter complaints of the injustice, their reply has been, change your business, -seek a new employment,-learn a new trade. Nay, they have so far insulted his misfortune and his natural rights as a man, as to say to him :-you have mistaken your business; you should have been a tiller of the earth; American citizens have no business with manufactures; nature intended them for producers of raw material; it is only Englishmen and Frenchmen who shall be permitted to work it up and confer value upon it by an intelligent industry.

The fallacies of public economy are perhaps the most subtle that confuse and agitate the human mind; for this department of knowledge is not, as many have imagined, a science reducible to propositions, and capable of syllogistic forms. The deduction of its first principles is from a wide and general experience in the business and intercourse of life. It is perhaps impossible for one wholly unacquainted with affairs to understand it. To feel the value of its rules and maxims we must be, or we must have been, in a double contact with the world, a social and an economical contact. Every step in the reasonings of public economy must be taken upon a firm ground; there must be no leaping or striding with the lifts of imagination. The wings of anticipation must be pinioned to the side, and every nerve of sense suffered to come rudely in contact with reality. What is the experience of a nation with its affairs, if not the enlarged and generalized experience of an individual with his own? and that, too, not of a one sided or partial activity, narrowed by following too intently a single line of occupation, but by a general observation and understanding of all businesses, and an appreciation of their value compared with others. A complete and accomplished farmer, banker, or negotiator might very easily be a wretched economist in public affairs; but the know

ledge of banking, in reference to the general business of the community, and of the arts of agriculture and general negotiation, as they are integral parts of the national industry, may be well conceived to be indispensible to the statesman.

"As every producer," says Mr. Meredith, " in one branch of useful industry, is also a consumer of the products of others, and as his ability to consume depends upon the profits of his production, it follows, that to give prosperity to one branch of industry, is to increase the rest." A proposition, which, most evidently, proceeds from an experience, by no means limited to a single, narrow line of occupation, but either versed in, or by thorough observation well informed of the positive and relative value of many.

We find, in this report, a principle developed, which has already been alluded to, but which, from its importance, requires continual enforcement and reiteration.

"No country can attain a due strength of prosperity that does not by its own labor carry its own productions as nearly as possible to the point necessary to fit them for ultimate consumption. To export its raw material and re-import the articles manufactured from it, or to neglect its own raw materials and import the articles manufactured from that of another country, is to pretermit the means which nature has provided for its advancement.

"For instance, we exported, during the fiscal year, ending 30th June, 1848, raw cotton to the value of about sixty-six millions of dollars. If that cotton had been spun and woven at home, (supposing its value to be increased fourfold by manufacture), it would have produced a value of about one-hundred and ninety-eight millions in addition. What would have been the effect of this increased production on the prosperity of the country."

"The manufacture of cotton cloth is begun with the planting of the cotton-is carried to a certain point by the planter, and then taken up and perfected by the spinner and weaver. The planter and manufacturer are not engaged in different branches of industry, but in the same-the one commences the process which the other completes. Cotton seed of insignificant value being by regular stages of labor deve

loped and brought to the form of cotton | cloth, has acquired a value of about two hundred and sixty-four millions.

"The planting States have added many millions to the annual production of the country by the culture of cotton. By continuing the process they could quadruple

that addition.

"The planter would then have a market at his door for all his produce, and the farmer would in like manner have a home market for his. The power of consumption of not only breadstuffs, but of every article useful or necessary in the feeding, clothing, and housing of man, would be vastly increased-the consumer and producer would be brought nearer to each other-and in fact a stimulus would be applied to every branch of productive industry.

"It is gratifying to know that the manufacture of cotton has already been introduced into several of the planting States, and it ought not to be doubted will rapidly be extended."

The manufacture of iron, wool, and our other staples would lead to similar results. The effect would be a vast augmentation of our wealth and power.

Upon commerce the effects might be expected to be still more marked. It is not enough to say that no country ever diminished its commerce by increasing its productions and that no injury would therefore result to that interest. There would probably be not only a great increase in the amount, but an improvement not less important in the nature of our com

government must be managed in their manner; that is to say, by the rules of common honesty, and common prudence. Let kings and subtle ministers go on refining; of their subtleties the people have no knowledge; and if they or their representatives depart from those simple rules of construction, by which the massive framework of the state is held together, the fabric must fall about their ears. The equitable working of this system commends it to our entire favor.

We observe, first, that were foreign goods admitted duty free, the revenue would have to be collected by direct taxation.

This taxation would have to hear equally upon every species of property. The taxes for the general government would probably be collected by the same agents who collect for the State governments, and upon the same species of property. other system would be esteemed equitable. If extraordinary expenses were to be met, excises on liquors and other luxuries would probably be tried.

No

By the system of direct taxation the expenses of the general government would be severely felt by every tax-payer. Poll taxes are always inequitable, as they bear more heavily upon the poor; the revenues would consequently be collected upon real and personal property.

A sudden addition of forty millions to the general taxes would be severely felt by a population of twenty-one millions, of whom only a third or thereabouts would be the real tax-payers.

The annual importation of foreign luxuries would become cheaper, other things being equal, to the amount of taxation transferred to land, &c., i. e., thirty millions cheaper.

Were the duty-payers the same with the tax-payers, it would make but little difference to them, whether they paid a land tax or paid a duty, the one would not be more burdensome than the other. It might, however, be more agreeable to pay a voluntary tax for luxuries which they were not obliged to use, than to pay a forced and inevitable one on real estate, &c., collected by a government officer.

But the tax-payers would not be the same as the duty-payers. The tax-payers would be every holder of property in